yeah, we've all had those kinds of days! In fact, I'm pretty sure I read a very simnilar post a year or two ago on here.

Maybe one thing that will not only help you not make that mistake again, but will also make an improvement in your shot...is to put a clean basket in your pf handle, then lock it on the group at the end of each session. Not only will it make sure you always have a basket in your pf, but it'll warm up the pf too, so you won't lose too much heat durting the first extraction.

.Always remember the most important thing is what ends up in your cup!

yeah, we've all had those kinds of days! In fact, I'm pretty sure I read a very simnilar post a year or two ago on here.

Maybe one thing that will not only help you not make that mistake again, but will also make an improvement in your shot...is to put a clean basket in your pf handle, then lock it on the group at the end of each session. Not only will it make sure you always have a basket in your pf, but it'll warm up the pf too, so you won't lose too much heat durting the first extraction.

The pf is on the machine the whole time it's warming up. Once it gets to temp I run hot water through it into the the cups to heat the cups, and the pf itself. I then remove the pf, take out the basket and dry it well before I start dosing.

It's at that point that the errors began....

If it sounds good, it is good.~ Duke Ellington

If you sound bad on Squire through a Peavey Bandit, you're not going to sound good on a PRS through a Badcat.

interesting process. You find it's not hot enough after warming up with the group then? I don't do that extra step of heating the pf with hot water, and my cup warmer is pretty darn good (especially after the cups have been sitting there for about 90 minutes). I do rinse my pf and basket between shots, but I dry it all off still assembled. Of course, I find that pretty easy since I always use a bottomless pf.

Well, anyhow, I'm sure it's pretty rare that you have a day like you first described.

.Always remember the most important thing is what ends up in your cup!

interesting process. You find it's not hot enough after warming up with the group then? I don't do that extra step of heating the pf with hot water, and my cup warmer is pretty darn good (especially after the cups have been sitting there for about 90 minutes)....

Well, my machine is compatible with using a programmable timer, so it comes on at 5:30am every day. Some days I have to leave the house before 7, so on those it gets about 45-50 min warmup, but on other days it's on for at least 90 min before I get to it.

.Always remember the most important thing is what ends up in your cup!

At your suggestion, I turned it on before I got in the shower this morning and pulled a "free" shot by just running out the stuff that was in the grinder (heresy, I know. Put away the pitchforks people! Ha!). A little more bitter than I would have preferred, but still better than I was going to get at the local shop!

If it sounds good, it is good.~ Duke Ellington

If you sound bad on Squire through a Peavey Bandit, you're not going to sound good on a PRS through a Badcat.

I'd be interested to hear how things go after a week of this ( unless you can tell sooner), when compared to your prior method. When I owned a Silvia, the first thing I did every day when getting out of bed was stumble over to her and flip the on switch. My night routine before going to bed was to check the reservoir, make sure the boiler was full, and make sure the steam wand was closed off all the way.

.Always remember the most important thing is what ends up in your cup!

I'm a single dad with two kids. There's no way I have time to mess with an espresso weekday mornings and still get everyone to where they need to be by when they need to be there, and still get to work.

Since you asked... my usual warm up time is when I'm making dinner. It's probably on and heating for about 20 minutes before I start flushing the hot water through the system, including the pf, and then another 10 minutes while I'm running around doing other things before I actually pull the shot.

I think this is plenty of time.

As a musician, I've been on a lot of boards with connoisseurs of different types of high-end things (audio equipment, guitars, amplifiers, espresso machines, stompboxes, etc. etc. etc). Over the years I've found that, really, most of the effect of stuff like 90-minutes warmup, cryogenically frozen guitar strings, gold plated one-direction cabling, etc. is psychological.

I see a lot of this on CG and HB. But for me, the physics is the physics. If you want good results, then you need to practice. Pay attention to what you're doing. Focus on the outcomes. The equipment doesn't care, mostly because equipment is inanimate and - lacking consciousness - is incapable of knowing what you're trying to achieve.

To get to the point - and I'm not necessarily directing all of this at you - once everything is warm, it's warm. I'm not sure how much "more warm" I'm going to create by leaving it on any longer. I know that this puts me in the minority, to say the least, on these boards. I'm willing to accept the opprobrium of my peers.

Do I go with the 6 minute warm up recommended by the manual my espresso machine came with? No. I don't thinK that provides enough time for all the tubing and what not to heat up. But once the machine is warm to the touch, the rest is just wasted electricity - IMHO - unless someone can show me otherwise.

Maybe there's a study or something that shows that 30+ minutes of warmup time is necessary? Actually, I'd love to see something like that because this has been bugging me. Maybe I'm just getting cranky in my senility?

If it sounds good, it is good.~ Duke Ellington

If you sound bad on Squire through a Peavey Bandit, you're not going to sound good on a PRS through a Badcat.

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